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Pets
Pets are animals kept primarily for a person's company or protection, as opposed to working animals, sport animals, livestock, and laboratory animals, which are kept primarily for performance, agricultural value, or research. The most popular pets are noted for their attractive appearances and their loyal or playful personalities. Links To Peel Peel's earliest known pet was a dog he kept while living in California in the 60's.On the Perfumed Garden show of 06 August 1967, he recalled the death of a very small puppy which was mourned by himself and the other inhabitants of his home in San Bernardino, and sounded close to tears. On the PG he would often express his fascination with hamsters, gerbils, dibblers and other small creatures. . In the UK his first known pets were his hamsters, two of whom were named Dandelion and Biscuit. He often referred to them in his late 1960s shows and his columns in International Times and Disc & Music Echo. Both names were used, for his record label and sister publishing company respectively. As Andy Roberts' points out in the notes to the first Liverpool Scene LP, his song "Percy Parslow's Hamster Farm" (also done on a 1968 Night Ride session) may have a typically whimsical late 1960s title, but was written after Peel and Roberts had visited the said farm, which "really exists". A photograph of Peel with one of his hamsters was used by the Daily Mirror to illustrate an interview the DJ did with the paper's "agony aunt" Marjorie Proops, in which he defended his decision to talk about having had VD on his "son of Night Ride" show in summer 1969. Sheila Ravenscroft mentions in Margrave Of The Marshes ref that when Peel's flat was searched by police officers from the Drug Squad, they even examined the hamster cages. In 1972, Peel moved to the country and had more space to keep pets. He had a sheepdog named Woggle, who later became his and Sheila's bridesmaid at their wedding in 1974. Apart from hamsters and dogs, Peel had cats, chickens and at one time kept a horse for his daughter Florence in a shed until she left for university. Mentioned In Shows ;1968 *11 August 1968: John dedicates the next track (Pink Floyd's Julia Dream) to a house mouse, and Flossie a small dog that wasn't allowed into Broadcasting House. ;1980 *17 July 1980: Peel tells a story of how some years ago he kept a tribe of small Chinese hamsters around the house ;1987 *16 December 1987: Peel mentions that his dog urinated on his wife Sheila's shoe after playing a pig encourager tune earlier on the programme, after having car problems. ;1988 *14 September 1988: Peel mentions liking the Lillie track from Milt Jackson, not only because of the tune, but also he has a dog of the same name. ;1991 *Peel 001 (Radio Bremen): At start of show, Peel talks about how he had to find his dog which was running around the village. ;1992 *Chain Reaction: David Gedge Interviews John Peel (Transcript): (JP: "I'm a country boy by and large, and having got four amusing and most of the time generous-hearted children, and a job on the radio, and a couple of dogs and a few cats and things – I actually don't want for anything else.") ;1996 *23 September 1996 (BBC World Service): (JP: "And I mentioned last week that Polly Harvey and John Parish have been down at my house recording one or two songs, versions of songs form their new LP, in order for them to be broadcast on my domestic programmes. And it was a wonderful sunny day and they sat in this very room playing and singing and myself and my family sat on the road outside - there's not an awful lot of traffic goes past - and as they were recording one or two kind of country things happened. A very large baler(?) went past, and I think probably turned up on the tape as well, and our dog Bernard was spectacularly and noisily sick on the road outside as well, and that could be on the tape too. It is certainly not on this track from the LP, though.") ;1997 *05 May 1997: Bridget the dog makes a starring appearance. ;1998 *23 August 1998 (BFBS): (JP: "Every time I open the microphone, I hope that you're going to hear small motorcycles whizzing by, with engines that sound like lawnmowers, because there's a gang of kids who I suspect are probably too young to be riding on public roads actually, who keep whizzing up and down...that's an old man speaking. (Affects ex-Army colonel ranting tone) "How dare they come down here, the little swines, I'll set the dogs on them!" In fact, the dogs did chase them a second or so ago, so the dogs had to be brought into the house, but they whizz up the road and up to the top of the hill, because they can't go anywhere when they get up there, so they have to come whizzing back down again, but they've decided they rather like this (pause to allow listeners to hear)....no. can't hear the little brutes. Never mind, I'll get 'em, you wait and see.") *16 November 1998 (BFBS): (JP: "A bit of a domestic crisis in the course of that because Sheila, my wife, came in, and having come back with the Layers' Pellets, I said to her, "Actually, I'd quite like a couple of boiled eggs," and she said, "We've only got one." I said, "We've got about twenty hens out there! One egg?!" It turns out this is the time of year when they don't lay them, but at the same time productivity is an important issue, you know. And I just know that there are hens in somewhere like Central America or somewhere in Korea that are laying three or four eggs a day for virtually no food whatsoever. I think, what are our hens doing out there? Just sitting out there? I can see them from here, just pottering about, enjoying the sunshine, doing nothing. I think it's disgraceful.") ;1999 *20 February 1999 (BFBS): (JP: "Spring is almost here, you know. I was recording this programme sort of late afternoon for you here on BFBS, and in the field across the road, I can see four whopping great rabbits from here, and doubtless there are more skulking in the hedgerows. I'm in the house on me own at the moment because my wife and William our son have gone to collect animal feed products: just cat food and chicken food and dog food and that sort of thing from a neighbouring village. It's the only connection we have with our most famous neighbour, Bill Wyman out of the Rolling Stones, formerly of the Rolling Stones. We share an animal feed product place: I think that puts me pretty close to the wacky world of rock-a-boogie.") *22 March 1999 (BFBS): (JP: "Included in the programme at this stage because it's a reminder to me that when I've finished I've got to go outside and lock the chickens up for the night. This is true: what a romantic life it is in showbiz.") ;2000 *November 2000 (FSK): Peel mentions his son Tom is keen on the Ryme Tyme track and his wife Sheila had to clean inside of the car after the pet puppy became sick from the vet. *December 2000 (FSK): Peel mentions his puppy destroyed the DAT tape of the show and he had to do another one. ;2001 *16 August 2001: (JP: "There are no birds in the garden, I think the hornets have probably seen them all off. And I haven't seen the cat for a while either.") *23 August 2001: Nellie the dog makes an unscheduled appearance during this programme, broadcast from Peel Acres. *November 2001 (FSK): Peel mentions rushing out of the house rescuing two elderly couple from his dogs, who were more likely to lick rather than attack them. ;2002 *27 June 2002: The Roy Orbison track is played from the original LP that Peel bought when he was living in Dallas. The sleeve is said to have been "partially consumed by a dog that I used to own when I lived in California." *24 October 2002: John tells the sad tale of Nab the hen, who had died on Monday. Nab had been a birthday gift in August from the Nab Woodley people. Nab, it is said, "always looked rather dejected, I must admit, and not entirely at home in our garden." When Nab died, it was discovered that she wasn't a hen at all, but a cockerel. John suspects that their other cockerel who is dominant and aggressive may have been giving him a hard time. ;2003 *06 March 2003: (JP: "This is a house that's full of celebration again tonight actually, and this time it's nothing to do with football. Our cat Gladys, who was run over by a passing car, or truck or something, didn't stop, a couple of weeks ago or a week or so ago, disappeared from the house on Monday, run away, we felt, into the countryside to die, and then resurfaced this evening as I came home, which was a fairly moving evening for us anyway, if not for you.") *March 2003 (FSK): Peel does sound impressions of a sheep and a fox after the Alien Dread's Yak Dub track, that features samples of goats, where he thought they were sheep. He mentions that his fox impressions frightens his cats. *17 July 2003: (JP: "We never had a hamster called Lady, let me tell you that. We had one called Dandelion and one called Biscuit, but never a Lady. That would have been too affected I think.") External Links *Wikipedia *Home Truths (Pet Sniffing) Category:Lists Category:Animals